This invention relates to a racing game machine which simulates a race conducted on a track such as a horse race and a car race.
The racing game machine is designed to let players forecast the placing of moving objects which are formed to imitate horses and cars, for example and are caused to run on a looped track to compete one another. There has been known the racing game machine which is constructed such that the moving objects are caused to run in a desired direction and the positions of the moving objects are detectable. How the moving objects run is controlled in accordance with their winning percentages and their detected positions, so that the players can play with more of a presence and at a higher interest (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1-259404).
In this racing game machine, each moving object is provided with a coil which generates a magnetic field of a given frequency and a position detection plate is provided on a bottom surface of the track, electric wires being laid on the position detection plate in both of X- and Y-directions to form multilayer. Where the magnetic field is generated is detected by the position detection plate so as to detect the position of the corresponding moving object. Further, routes of the respective moving objects are beforehand stored in a memory in the form of table and are randomly selected each race. The respective moving objects are caused to run along the set running routes by suitably correcting their running directions in accordance with the comparison results of the detected positions and running routes thereof.
Since the respective moving objects are caused to run along the predetermined running routes in the conventional racing game machine, players' interest in the race flags once the running patterns of the moving objects are known to them. If the number of the running patterns is increased in order not to predict easily which is selected among the running routes of the moving object for the player, then it requires a larger-sized memory for storing them. This is disadvantageous in terms of a cost.
Further, since the positions of the moving objects are detected using an X-Y coordinate system and the running directions thereof are calculated and controlled in accordance with the detected position information, it is complicated to detect the positions and to control the movement of the moving objects.